The present invention relates generally to acoustic devices. More specifically, the invention provides a method and system for automatically adjusting acoustic devices based on acoustic reflectance. For example, the acoustic reflectance is a relationship between reflected waves and incident waves. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to hearing aids, but it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
Hearing aids have been widely used to compensate hearing losses of human ears. A human ear is comprised of an outer ear, a middle ear, and an inner ear. The outer ear includes an ear canal, the middle ear includes an eardrum, and the inner ear includes a cochlea. Depending on individual needs, people often use different types of hearing aids. The types of hearing aids include in-ear aids, behind-ear aids, and canal aids.
These hearing aids are usually fitted to individual ears. Such fitting process includes several steps—measuring extent of hearing loss, determining gain of hearing aid, and adjusting frequency response of hearing aid. These steps are often performed by an audiologist, whose time spent on the fitting process is a significant cost associated with hearing aids. If the fitting process is not successful, the hearing aids are often returned to the manufacturers for full refunds. For example, the return rate may range from about 18% to 28%. Such high return rate can significantly increase costs of hearing aids.
Hence it is desirable to improve techniques for fitting hearing aids.